Here's my 3...
1. Quaha Napoletana II. This is an old machine I found on a roadside hard rubbish collection. It just needed a good clean and some seals. Since then it has had a bit of TLC including a solenoid coil replaced (whole solenoid valve to be replaced soon), more seals, internal hoses and adjustment of the over-pressure valve. It is my daily coffee machine - one or two decaf almond lattes a day, the occasional long black decaf. This is still a current model, though they are now sold as Lelit Combi. (They have been sold under several other names over the years.) It has its own grinder, which is quite noisy.
2. Saeco Via Venezia - my first espresso machine. This one came from the recycle shop,about $10. Saeco have a clever technology (for which I believe they hold a patent) that has a pressure valve in the handpiece, so that no coffee is released until it has built up 9 bar pressure, the correct pressure for espresso. It makes them very user-friendly, you can make a good espresso with not much skill, and with pre-ground coffee from the supermarket (which is usually too coarse for good espresso.) Other basic espresso machines try to do the same with twin-wall baskets that have a pinhole outlet to allow some pressure to build up, but they are nowhere near as good, the control isn't there.
3. My new toy is the Saeco Odea Go, a "superautomatico" machine that grinds the beans, compresses the ground coffee, and doses the water through the grounds automatically. You still foam the milk manually. I got it for $20 from Lifeline opp shop, a bargain as it was over $1000 new. It needs a kit of new seals, as it is a little erratic at present. Sometimes it makes a great coffee, other times some water leaks past a seal and the resulting brew is weak. I will get the seals soon.
When fixed, I will donate it to the local community hall where we practise yoga. We stay afterwards for coffee, at present I bring my machine and make the coffees, in future I will leave the Superautomatico there so anyone can make a coffee even if I'm not there.
The magnetic sign on the Quaha machine was given to me by our Yoga teacher.
